A report this morning from Londow showed that national UK unemployment has continued to to climb. Unemployment figures show a rise of 48,000 to 2.67 million durin the last quarter of 2011.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also said the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance last month increased by 6,900 to 1.6 million.

The ONS at the same time released data related to average workers earnings which increased by 2.0% in the year to December, unchanged from the previous month.